Hacked on Instagram

Your Instagram was taken. Here's the next hour.

Your account is the business. Treat the first hour like one.

Does this look familiar

  • You're logged out everywhere and your password doesn't work
  • An email from Instagram says your email or phone was changed, and you didn't do it
  • Your profile is posting crypto, giveaways or links you didn't make
  • Followers are messaging you about DMs you never sent
  • A copyright or verification "notice" arrived as a DM

Do these, in order

  1. Email and carrier first

    Before touching Instagram: from a clean device, change your email password, enable app-based two-factor, sign out of all sessions, and check recovery options. Call your carrier for an account PIN and port-freeze. Full first hour.

  2. Open instagram.com/hacked from a clean device. Choose "My account was hacked" and follow every step. Use the email or phone you had on the account before it was changed.

  3. If Instagram emailed you about the change, open that email: it contains a "secure your account here" link that can revert the change. Check that it really came from security@mail.instagram.com before clicking.

  4. If you get in: Settings → Accounts Center → Password and security. Change the password, review "Where you're logged in" and log out all other sessions, review Two-factor, and check Email and Phone for additions you don't recognize.

  5. Settings → Website permissions / Apps and websites: remove anything you don't use. Then check Accounts Center for a linked Facebook or Threads account the attacker may have added.

  6. If you can't get in, Instagram may ask for a video selfie. That is legitimate inside the official flow. It is never legitimate as a DM request.

Avoid

  • Any account DMing you about "verification," "copyright" or "recovery help." Instagram does not DM about enforcement.
  • Paid "recovery experts" in the comments of your own posts. Every one of them is a second scam.
  • Phone numbers for "Instagram support." There are none.

After you're back in

Make sure it can't happen the same way twice.

  • Figure out how they got in. The fix depends on the door they used, and there's usually more than one.
  • Close that door specifically, then the ones next to it.
  • Assume the same people will try again. They usually do.
  • Check your passwords and email against known breaches with a free account, and run the exposure scorecard. Or let us do the whole thing.